FIG. 1 shows a conventional prior art potato harvester 10. Harvester 10 comprises generally a potato digging apparatus 12, an infeed conveyor 14, and a discharge conveyor 16. A potato harvester such as that shown in FIG. 1 is typically towed behind a tractor. The harvester conveyors separate harvested potatoes from soil and debris while also elevating the potatoes for discharge into a truck (not shown) which follows alongside the harvester.
Infeed conveyor 14 extends parallel to the harvester's direction-of-travel, inclining upwardly from a front, lower, infeed end 18 to a rear, upper, outfeed end 20. Discharge conveyor 16 extends transversely to the harvester's direction-of-travel, from an infeed end 22, in the proximity of infeed conveyor outfeed end 20, to an outfeed end 24. Discharge conveyor 16 receives potatoes from outfeed end 20 of infeed conveyor 14 and transfers them transversely over the side of the following truck.
The infeed end 22 of discharge conveyor 16 is generally placed beneath the outfeed end 20 of infeed conveyor 14 so that harvested potatoes drop from infeed conveyor 14 onto discharge conveyor 16. The distance of the drop usually exceeds several inches.
While the drop from infeed conveyor 14 onto discharge conveyor 16 is generally accepted as being a required result of harvester structure, it is a frequent cause of damage to harvested potatoes. The impact when the potatoes hit discharge conveyor 16 bruises the potatoes and results in subsequent price reductions when the potatoes are sold.
It is therefore desirable to provide a potato harvester which, while continuing to move potatoes transversely to the harvester's direction-of-travel into a following truck, does not require the potatoes to drop any significant distance from one conveyor to another. The invention described below meets this objective in a reliable and economical manner.